One of the most touching is now in the keeping of the Yass & District Historical Society at the Yass & District Museum, labelled Honour Roll Euralie. 

It is a small, framed, hand-drawn poster with simple pictures of a foot soldier, light horseman and entwined Australian and British flags.

The Euralie Public School was located about fifteen kilometres, south-west of Yass, at the centre of a small, rural community. It is no more.

The Honour Roll and photo of its unveiling reflect a poignant story, however. One that no doubt, was repeated too many times during and after the First World War, here and elsewhere.

Eight names were originally listed on the memorial, with four more added later.

In the right-hand photo above, five-year-old Amelia ‘Mary’ McGrath unveils the roll, dressed in a white nurse’s uniform and cap bearing a red cross. Her eldest brother, Clement McGrath, was at the top of the original list of names. He enlisted in August 1915, aged 19-years-old and died just eight months later, on the battlefields in France, aged 20.

Members of the McGrath family and from the Euralie community witnessed the unveiling of the roll before the end of the Great War. A sad occasion, I can imagine.

Yass & District Historical Society invites you to join them in a seminar to commemorate the end of the Great War on November 11, 2018, at 2pm at Yass Soldiers’ Memorial Hall.

This follows the Yass RSL sub-branch’s Remembrance Day service, in front of the hall at 10.40am.

It will be an opportunity to remember those who served from Yass and surrounding areas.

Speakers will address the return of the unknown soldier; how veterans reintegrated back into a changing society and how commemorations in Yass have changed over the years.

Afternoon tea will be served and a gold coin donation will be appreciated.

Bookings are essential.